Tips to Make Family Vacations Affordable and Fun
Or How to Stay Sane During a 12-Hour Drive While Stuck In the Car with 3 Children

Car Travel

07/29/2013

Last summer, while on vacation, I witnessed my two older girls going off to ride a roller coaster together. Alone.

Without me or My Chandler.

For me, it was kind of bittersweet to watch them enjoy something that I love.

For My Chandler, it was a relief that he didn’t have to ride the coaster! He and wild rides don’t always mix!

Two days later, I watched my youngest, Pumpkin, take her first spin on a kiddie roller coaster with Peanut.

Followed by a very quick stop by the ride attendant to let her off.

Followed by tears from Pumpkin because the ride was too scary and bumpy.

For her, carousels and ferris wheels are more her speed.

I was a bit surprised that one of my children would not like a roller coaster.

And then I remembered my first time on a roller coaster.

It was a kiddie coaster, much like the one that Pumpkin had just attempted on her own.

I was so excited to go on this ride at the small amusement park in York, Maine. I was about the same age as Pumpkin is now and my aunt and her roommate were taking me and my sister on some of the rides in this park. The kiddie coaster looked amazing to my small eyes and I couldn’t wait to try it out.

When it was time to board, I sat down in the car with my aunt while her roommate sat with my sister behind us. The excitement started to build. And then, the coaster took off around the (mini) track.

We weren’t even fully around the track when I started to cry. I wanted off this ride!

I remember feeling a mixture of embarrassment and relief as the coaster came to a stop to let me and my aunt off before it resumed for the others in the cars.

Relief that I didn’t have to be on that scary, bumpy ride anymore.

Embarrassment that my younger sister was completely fine with the coaster and stayed on for the rest of the ride, waving to me with a huge grin every time they went around the track.

But, as I grew, I gained a better appreciation for coasters and will gladly escort one of my kids on the latest and greatest coasters.

07/22/2013

With the heat
wave hitting the Northeast this past week and seeing recent advertising on
television about Christmas in July, I started reminiscing about a trip we took
when I was a little girl. I think I was maybe 4 or 5.

It was
summertime and it was hot. But, there was a place near Wilmington, NY, in the
Adirondack mountains where it was just a little bit colder - magically colder.

It’s called the
North Pole and it can be found in Santa’s Workshop, a themed park that actually
boasts the address of North Pole, NY.

Our visit must
have made quite the impact on me, because even though I was very young, to this
day I have very vivid memories of this place.

I remember
getting to touch the North Pole, an actual frosty cold pole situated in the
center of Santa’s little village.

There was a
building where you could see reindeer. Actual reindeer! And each one had their
name on their stall. (Are you singing the song right now? I am!)

I remember
going to visit the big man himself, jolly old St. Nick. It wasn’t even
December! I hadn’t even made my Christmas list, yet! (Although, I am sure I
came up with some suggestions for him, anyway!)

I remember
there being some rides to go on and sleighs to sit in. I remember it feeling
very “Christmas-y” and kind of magical in this little village.

But, the
biggest memory for me was my acting debut at Santa’s Workshop. There was a
short skit that was being performed at an outdoor stage area in the park and we
decided to check it out. My sister and I were given permission to head down
towards the gate at the front of the seating area so we could see the show a
bit better.

Call it luck,
or just being in the right place at the right time, but I was selected by an
elf to be a part of the show.

I got invited
on stage and was given the honor of sitting next to Mother Goose as she read a
story.

Don’t ask me
what the show was about. I think I was too mesmerized by this opportunity to be on stage to fully
remember what the plot.

But, I do vaguely
recall it was a mystery that needed to be solved. I do remember needing to skip
around the stage with Red Riding Hood and being shocked when her shoe came off.
And I do remember being even more shocked that she just kept right on going and
didn’t go back to get it!

It was hard
work pulling off a convincing role as “child who helped solve the mystery.”
But, I did it and I was rewarded with a special Santa hat with my name on it.

A hat that I
still have to this day!

The hat is
still around and so is the workshop. There are still rides and shows with the
Mother Goose Players. The reindeer are still there and so is Santa Claus. You
can still get Santa hats and cookies.

07/19/2013

If you drive around Prince Edward Island’s countryside you’ll see a familiar site – acres and acres of farmland. We couldn't get over how much of the island was devoted to farms and farming. In fact, with all of the farms and with all of the coastline ripe for fishing, it's wasn't really a surprise to read that the food industry is one of the biggest contributors to Prince Edward Island's economy.

And for the week that we were there, we helped contribute to their economy through food!

One of the foods that the island is perhaps most famous for is the seafood that is caught around the island, especially the mussels. I can't get over the number of people who told us to try the mussels when we got to the island!

What's really neat is that because you are on an island with tons of coastline, you can probably be sure that the fresh-cooked seafood meal that you get at a restaurant was probably caught not far from where you are dining!

The food we enjoyed the most while in PEI, though, was the PEI potato! The first time we tried them was when we picked up a bag at a local farm stand. These delicious potatoes practically melted in our mouths! And it didn’t matter how we fixed them – mashed, baked, made into French fries. They always tasted heavenly.

I’m not sure why these were any different than other potatoes.

Perhaps it’s because they were freshly picked on the farm when we bought them. Perhaps it has something to do with the rich, sandy red soil that they are grown in. Perhaps it has something to do with the temperatures on the island or even the fact that they are grown on an island.

Whatever the case may be, these potatoes made for delicious meals every day!

Even when we had to eat a few cold fries in the car because I panicked at the last minute thinking we wouldn’t be able to take them back over the border!

07/18/2013

We had access to a beautiful semi-private beach where we stayed. It was on the northern side of the island in Darnley. The beach stretched for miles and miles in both directions and only the homes in the immediate vicinity had access to this beach.

Because you had to walk down the steep red dirt dunes, too, when you were on the beach you saw very few homes and very few people.

In fact, it wasn’t unusual to have only a handful of families in our immediate area of the beach. And sometimes it was even less.There were times where we’d be the only family on our stretch of the beach. It was like our own little slice of heaven.

We’d often come down and spend a couple of hours on the beach, whether it was swimming or walking along the beach or searching for the biggest sea shell or flying kites or playing bocce ball. It was a truly relaxing time for all of us and we heard very little bickering!

One night, we decided to pack the cooler and some beach blankets and have ourselves a beach cookout. We carted everything down to the beach and set up a little fire ring in the sand (which actually wasn’t that hard as there was the remains of one that we found).

Our little fire ring was in a nice shady spot near the dunes, which helped protect the fire from being blown out by any winds. My Chandler also enjoyed the fact that he could use some flatter spots on the cliff side of the dunes as work space.

We did discover a disadvantage to this little set up, though, as the sun started to go down. It grew a lot colder!

For My Chandler, the cook of the family, cooking over an open fire on the beach was an activity he was more than happy to take on. All of his camping and boy scout experiences and knowledge was put to good use. There were a few challenges along the way - like the hamburgers that he cooked in the camp broiler that were awkward to handle until he found a way to prop it up. But, the end result was that we were treated to a wonderful beachside meal of hotdogs and hamburgers and cooked potatoes and carrots.

My Chandler was particularly pleased with the way the potatoes came out. He ended up using two sandstone rocks from the fire ring and placing them on either side of a section of coals. He then laid the grate from the gas grill on those and placed a foil-wrapped package of potatoes and carrots on that. The result – perfectly cooked side dish! Although, part of that may be the fact that we were having more yummy PEI potatoes, a delicacy that I’ll talk more about tomorrow!

We wrapped up our beach meal with the must-have dessert for all campfires – s’mores! And as we enjoyed those, we also enjoyed the wonderful sunset. A perfect way to end another perfect day at PEI!

07/17/2013

Around the
middle of the week, we needed to take a little break from “all things Anne” and
decided to try a real tourist trap – I mean attraction – that the girls had
been begging us to visit.

So, we headed
to the Sandspit.

The Sandspit
boasts on its website as being the largest amusement park on Prince Edward
Island. What it reminded me of is one of those old-fashioned small amusement
parks. You know, like one of those small amusement parks situated on a
boardwalk with the little kiddie rides that go around and around in a circle.

It was a small
enough amusement park, that My Chandler and I had no problems letting Peanut
and Sweet Pea go off on their own to ride some of the bigger “kiddie” rides. I
had no problems, because I could situate myself in just the right spot in the
park where I could see from one end to another!

But, even
though it was small and the rides weren’t overly thrill-seeking rides, they
were familiar fun rides and it was a great way to spend an afternoon with a
family.

The
Tilt-a-Whirl, the burlap bag slides, the bumper cars and the thriller coaster
were all hits with the bigger girls. Especially the coaster!

Pumpkin more
enjoyed the calmer rides like the ball pit, the horse and buggy ride that goes around in a circle and the miniature train ride.

My Chandler
even gamely went on the bumper cars with all three girls at one point.

The inner child
came out on that ride!

This definitely
was no Disney World. Heck, it wasn’t even a Six Flags or Busch Gardens. But, it
kept the Road Trip Family entertained for a couple of hours.

07/16/2013

Our family is
familiar with welcome centers when you enter a new state. It often coincides
with a bathroom break during our travels. But the welcome center that beats all
welcome centers is the one you encounter at the base of the Confederation
Bridge right after you arrive on Prince Edward Island.

Gateway Village
is the official name of this welcome center, and let me tell you, this place
definitely lives up to its name! It’s like a little village all on its own!

This little
area actually looks like a turn-of-the-century little village with streets and
quaint buildings. Not only can you get information about the island, but you
can grab some food, do a little souvenir shopping, or play on the playground.

When you enter,
you are met by the funny sign welcoming you to the island. Road Trip Family is
always up for a photo opportunity, so we promptly made our way over to get
pictures.

In the main
Information Center building, there are the required bathrooms and quick snacks
and maps and pamphlets.

Rows and rows
of maps and pamphlets.

Paraphernalia
that is categorized around the room based on location on the island.

Having never
been to the island before, we had done some research and had made our ticket
reservations for the Anne musical, but didn’t have a lot of ideas about the
“little” things around the island. You know, the unique stores or the obscure
museums or historical spots.

We spent some
time pouring over all of this information. If it does get a bit overwhelming,
there are concierges available at the information desk to help you out, answer
any questions, and offer suggestions.

One of our
favorite finds while we were there, were the Anne of Green Gables “passports”
that we picked up for each of the girls. This little booklet had 2 pages
devoted to a certain location important to the Anne stories or to the life of
Lucy Maude Montgomery. There was also a place in each section where the girls
could get their passports stamped each time we visited one of these places.
What fun the girls had bringing their passports along and getting them stamped.
It was also fun to see how many of these spots we actually did visit!

Along with the
information center, there are gift shops where you can purchase souvenirs, both
Anne related and island related. We all had fun touring around these buildings.

One shop we
didn’t realize was there until we stopped on our way off the island was a Cows
store! This ice cream was some of the yummiest ice cream our family has ever
had. We had our first taste of Cows on Monday of our vacation and tried to have
a little bit of this ice cream almost every day. This ice cream is made with
local ingredients and is based on a secret family recipe that is still used
today! It’s also an entertaining place to go from the funny ice cream names
like “Moo-York Cheesecake” and “Wowie Cowie” to the funny souvenir t-shirts
like “Angry Herds” and “Moo-Tube” and “Super Moorio Brothers.”

Gateway Village
was definitely a good stop to make when we first arrived. But, it was also a
great place to have that one final goodbye as you get ready to exit the island.
We had one more taste of Cows ice cream, we bought a few more souvenirs and we
got a picture in front of the Anne statue.

07/15/2013

I’ve just spent
a week talking about all the wonderful ways to immerse yourself in the Anne of
Green Gables culture when you are on Prince Edward Island. And I am sure I’ll
continue to share bits and pieces about that in weeks to come.

But, there is
so much more to this piece of the world than one author who based her novels on
Prince Edward Island. I want to share a little bit about what else the island
has to offer.

It begins with
the big Confederation Bridge that you take to get on the island. Even though it
was a little rainy and cloudy when we arrived at the bridge, and you couldn’t
see very far ahead, we still managed to get a taste of just how majestic and
big this bridge really was. And actually, it made our entrance somewhat
magical. We couldn’t see the island until we got close to it, so it made it
feel like we were exiting our world and entering a whole new world.

There is an
amazing welcome center when you first enter Prince Edward Island and I will
definitely share more about this later. After picking up pamphlets and maps, we
headed on to the house.

Our home for
the week was situated right on a red-dirt road. Really! The dirt was red and
beautiful and vibrant next to the green grass and colorful wildflowers.

We opened the
door to the adorable cottage and were immediately greeted with a welcome basket
of yummy goodies. The girls were enamored by the cookies!

After unpacking
the car and getting situated, we decided to take a hike to the semi-private
beach that we had access to for the week.

All I can say
is – AH-MAZE-ING!

Red dirt dunes,
soft beach sand, gentle waves, warm water….wait, what? Warm water in a place up
north? It was hard to believe, but with the way the gulf stream flows, the
water that surrounds PEI is usually around the same temperature as what you’d
find on the coast of North Carolina.

I think we
spent a little bit of every day on this beach. Sometimes it was for a whole
day.

Sometimes it was just to play a game of bocce ball or to have a cook out.

One time, we went down to the beach for a walk after dinner and found the
“Teacup” rock that we had heard about.

I could have
spent the entire week just at the beach!

But, alas there
was so much more to see and do on this island. We definitely kept busy. What I
enjoyed was the driving. There was always some little treasure just waiting
around a corner for us to see.

One time we rounded a corner and saw the bright blue of the ocean in the distance behind rolling green hills.

Another time,
it was a colorful fishing village that is one of the most painted landscapes by
artists on PEI.

Another time,
we stumbled upon “The Lake of Shining Waters”, a lake made famous in the Anne
books.

There was even
a time when we found a farm where we could pick up some freshly picked PEI
potatoes.

My favorite
treasure, though, was one we found at the very end of the week – a road with
our family name on it that was all dirt, and covered by a blanket of trees. And
all along the road were signs warning cars to slow down for horses. It felt
like we were the only ones in the world as we drove through this tunnel of
trees, never once seeing another person or car. It was a road named after our family and it felt like it was just for our family.

07/12/2013

I was a bit skeptical when I first heard that someone had turned the classic Lucy Maude Montgomery book into a musical production. But, in every tourist publication that I read as we planned our trip to PEI there was always mention of this musical and that it was a must-see event. And after hearing an endorsement from my parents who had seen it a number of years ago, I decided that our family should check it out.

The musical is presented every summer at the Confederation Arts Centre in Charlottetown and is labeled the longest-running musical in Canada. We weren’t sure how the younger ones would do with a late night out or with this production, but we decided that this was based on a story that we were immersing ourselves in during our week at PEI so we should all see it. I was able to procure some decent seats pretty close to the stage, which made it feel like we were a part of the action at times.

For just over 2 hours, we were thoroughly entertained as Anne sang about the red roads in PEI, about trying ice cream for the first time and about her competition to get better grades than Gilbert Blythe. Everyone from My Chandler to Pumpkin were enthralled. My Chandler had never read the story, so for him it gave him a taste of what the story was about. As for the rest of us, we all loved the music, the dances, the acting… and for Sweet Pea, she enjoyed the actor who played Gilbert!

As we were walking out of the theater, we discovered that we could purchase a CD of the music. That CD has turned into the most used souvenir we’ve ever bought. Even now, almost a year later, the girls will ask us to plug the CD in on drives.

Followed quickly by Pumpkin asking if we can listen to track number 13.

Followed by a sing-along with everyone in the car – except My Chandler, who just shakes his head and chuckles!

07/11/2013

One of the most memorable scenes in the Anne books is when Anne Shirley is allowed to play hostess to her best friend Diana Barry while her guardian, Marilla, is at a meeting. Anne is thrilled to play hostess and be trusted to do this by herself. And best of all, Marilla has given Anne permission to serve raspberry cordial during this tea. Unfortunately, as often happens to Anne, the best of intentions goes wrong, and Anne accidentally serves her best friend red currant wine, causing Diana to become extremely drunk and Diana’s mother to announce that the two girls must not be friends anymore.

No worries, though. Things do have a way of working out in the story.

To my pure delight, we discovered that this famous cordial is now available for purchase at a smattering of stores around PEI. Sure, it’s a great marketing ploy and another way to make some money off the many tourists who visit the island purely because of the Anne stories.

But, hey, I’m proof that their marketing works!

We discovered this delectable drink one night early on in our vacation and purchased a couple of bottles for our family to try.

We were thirsty, really!

For me, I was hooked from that first sip.It was yummy deliciousness wrapped up in a cute little soda bottle with a drawing of Anne Shirley on the label.

It is a bit fizzy like a seltzer or a soda, but with a raspberry juice flavor. I described the taste to friends as being like a raspberry spritzer. I’ve tried other raspberry spritzers since then, though, and it just wasn’t the same.

Maybe you have to add a bit of PEI sunshine?

The fresh sea air floating in off the water?

A little bit of red dirt?

Whatever it was, it was so yummy that I was purchasing a bottle whenever we passed a cooler in a store. And before we left, both My Chandler and I purchased a case each to take home!

07/10/2013

There’s a little village on Prince Edward Island that has dirt roads and horse-drawn carriages. You can stop at the general store or visit the farm animals at the local farm. You can walk on wooden stilts or play in the sandbox outside the little school or participate in a daily potato sack race. You can learn to play the spoons, step dance or catch a little skit.

Okay, this isn’t a real village on Prince Edward Island, but Avonlea Village is a fun little attraction that puts you right into the Anne of Green Gables books. The moment you step through the train station entrance, you are transported back in time to an era that is captured in the Lucy Maude Montgomery books.

Along the block of red dirt roads are both heritage buildings from around PEI which have been moved and restored, as well as some recreations of buildings.

The three girls enjoyed the little wooden school house with the woodstove and old fashioned desks. All of us spent some time playing with outdoor toys that kids during Anne’s time would play with. Even My Chandler tried to walk on stilts!

The two younger girls enjoyed the building that housed tons of dress up clothes and little settings where photos could be taken like:

a dining area,

a clothesline and outhouse,

even a carriage.

My Chandler thought the general store was fun to explore (he fell in love with this hat!).

I enjoyed the church and the horse and buggy ride.

Sweet Pea’s favorite part of the day were the little skits scattered throughout the day. Favorite scenes from the Anne books were reenacted on a little stage set behind a home.

And when the actors were not performing these scenes, they were walking around the town and interacting with the tourists.

It was like an Anne version of Disney World!

Yes, this was a bit of a tourist trap, but it was also a fun way to spend a day on the island.